What Dreams May Come
by NBGirl
Summary: After the events of AJBAC, Max wonders just whose bed she's in. Utter fluff and nonsense. COMPLETED NOW THAT THIS SITE IS WORKING, PLEASE READ AND REVIEW.
1. Flying

AUTHOR'S NOTE 1: This story is the product of DarkZack and UlBanshee's incredibly detailed fan fiction challenge contest. (And I won, hooray!) You can see the rest of the amazing entries here:  
http://www.delphi.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=darkangelfans&msg=5191.1  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTE 2: Fan fiction challenge #2 is underway! Get all the information here:   
http://www.delphi.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=darkangelfans&msg=5819.1  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTE 3: This bit of utter, irredeemable fluff is dedicated to all fellow denizens of the Land of Denial, whose faith cannot be swayed by gossip, spoilers, or any other form of reality. Anyone who is not an M/L shipper...hates mushiness or sappiness...wants action, adventure, angst, or actual substance...stop reading right now. Yeah, I know if this really happened the show would fall to pieces and no one would watch it. I don't care. :o)  
  
WHAT DREAMS MAY COME   
  
She was in a bed...Logan's bed. Max closed her eyes and tilted her head back, giving Logan better access to her neck. God, he felt good. This felt good. After all the hell they'd been through, they deserved....  
  
Even with her eyes closed, she felt the shadow fall over her face. She looked up just as the bird cawed. Logan was a second behind, oblivious until he pulled his hands away from her body and saw them dripping with blood. Her blood.   
  
"Max..."  
  
"What's happening," she asked, panicked, although she already knew. The bird flew away and her consciousness faded.  
  
  



	2. Falling

A hospital bed. Hard, narrow.  
  
"You won't win. I'll never be one of them again."   
  
The bleached blonde placed a stethoscope over her chest. A heartbeat, steady, filled the room. "Listen to that. That's strong, isn't it? That is the heart of a soldier. A leader. A martyr."   
  
A heart for Manticore. Two hearts. Max couldn't take it. " Turn it off."   
  
The bitch turned it up. "He was quite a man, your brother, Zack. He must've loved you very much to make this sacrifice."   
  
Max fought for the strength to smash the sneer off the woman's face. She didn't have it. "Turn it off!"   
  
Renfro smiled. "But isn't it comforting to know that a part of him lives on in you? And that you've both come home to us? To me?"   
  
As the heartbeat echoed through her head, Max gave in and let the blackness overtake her once again.  
  



	3. Denying

Birds twittering, small, friendly, safe ones from the sound of them. A wide, soft bed this time, although she was propped up on a pile of solid pillows. The room was dark, quiet apart from the birds, and she was alone.  
  
No, she wasn't. She turned to see Logan passed out in an armchair a few feet from the bed. Turning hurt much less than she'd expected...why had she expected it to hurt? She couldn't remember.  
  
Logan woke as she watched him and smiled reassuringly at her, although she could see the stress behind his eyes. "How are you feeling?"  
  
"Better." she croaked, barely recognizing the hoarse voice as her own. "I think I feel better. Where am I this time?"   
  
Logan took a deep breath. "Let's try the short version. The four of you took out the genetics lab at Manticore. On the way out, you were shot by an X7, your genetic twin. We got you back to the van, but you were losing blood and we didn't know if it was safe to return to Seattle. We took you to a clinic that Zack knew of, they're as discreet as you can trust anyone to be. They patched you up pretty well, let us buy equipment and drugs to take care of you here. This is the apartment of an Eyes Only contact, he's out of the country right now. You've been on enough painkillers to keep you mostly asleep for the past few days."  
  
His speech was delivered with a tone that only came after frequent repetition.  
  
"But I thought I was at Manticore with..." she faltered.  
  
"This time. You've been at Manticore, at Crash, in the hospital in Seattle, God knows where else. Unfortunately, the only painkillers we could get for you can create some horrific dreams. I've explained every time you've woken up but you never remember."  
  
"How do I know this one isn't the dream?"  
  
"Oh, I know," Logan sighed. " What if none of this is really happening, and we're all in someone else's head, and they're making us up? I don't know what to tell you, Max." He took her hand, the gentleness in his hand and in his eyes belying the strain in his voice. "This one is real. You're healing quickly, I can give you less medication. The rest will fade, I promise."  
  
Max decided not to wait for the horrible ending of this dream. She forced herself back into oblivion.  
  
  



	4. Crying

An unfathomable time later, she opened her eyes again. The room was brighter, but otherwise the scene had remained the same. Logan was next to her in his chair, fiddling with a laptop.  
  
"Hey." Her throat still hurt.  
  
He looked up and smiled, waiting for the inevitable "Where am I?"  
  
"Why can't we go back to Seattle?" she asked instead.  
  
His smile grew. "You remember the first part...finally."  
  
He moved closer to the bed. "The computer linkup with Manticore was cut. We have no idea what's going on there, what they know. Not yet, at least. Bling is moving all of my equipment to a safe house. In a week or so, we'll move you there and see if we can figure out what's going on."  
  
Max shifted in the bed, queried her body. Nothing hurt, exactly, but she was pitifully weak. She'd never felt like this before. She hated it. She hated Logan seeing her like this. Good thing this was only a dream.  
  
"But who would know about you?" she asked, playing along. "Except Lydecker, and he wouldn't..."  
  
Logan watched her for a second. "When I found you, hurt, I wouldn't leave. Lydecker knocked me out. He must have reconsidered, because he'd gotten both of us halfway back to the van when Zack showed up."  
  
He hesitated, not wanting to go on. But she'd find out eventually. "Zack misunderstood. He thought Lydecker was responsible for your injuries. He shot him, point blank, and left him. By the time I regained consciousness and we pieced the story together, we were too far to go back. Lydecker's probably dead--Zack doesn't fool around--but we can't know for sure."  
  
"So Lydecker tries to help us, and winds up dead because of it," she replied, telling herself she shouldn't care. But she was on a roll, wallowing in misery and weakness. Might as well let it all out.  
  
"And now you're stuck up here because of me?," she asked, kicking herself as she said it. "And moving out of the penthouse? Aren't you losing valuable saving-the-world time?"  
  
The hurt in his blue eyes was stifled almost before she saw it. Almost. Whatever, it was just another damn nightmare.  
  
"You seemed like the priority at the time," he said stiffly. "The bullet went through you without hitting any major organs, but you had lost an enormous amount of blood, and the soft tissue damage was significant. Discretion or not, it didn't seem safe to leave you at the clinic. And it was equally risky for the others to stay with you. Manticore took heavy losses, but there were plenty left. Seattle isn't safe for either of us, and I chose to stay with you."  
  
God knows why was the undertone she imagined in his voice. She'd caused it, she knew, but still...she burst into tears.  
  
"Join Manticore," she whimpered. "See the world, they said. Meet interesting people. Nobody said anything about having to kill them all. I wanna go home!"  
  
Logan slid one arm around her, carefully, and started murmuring nonsense words about home, healing, the side effects of the medicine, how she'd feel better soon.  
  
But damn, she was crying. Enough of this dream.  
  
She let him wipe her eyes and let herself slide back into the blackness.  
  
  



	5. Hoping

Same bed, same window, same Logan.  
  
Holy shit, maybe this wasn't a dream after all.  
  
"Logan, is that a haircut or did you back into a lawnmower?" she rasped.  
  
He looked up and grinned. "I needed to get a few stitches where Lydecker clocked me with the gun. The bitch is back, I see."  
  
"I've come to the inevitable conclusion," she swallowed, grimacing, "that this is reality. Speaking of reality," she swallowed again, "why does my throat hurt?"  
  
"You've been in and out of consciousness for the better part of three days," he told her, tossing her a pack of cherry flavored gum. "Running a fever on and off. It's irritated. You'll feel better once you start eating and drinking more regularly. Speaking of which, you want to try eating again?"  
  
"Again?"  
  
"Those are some good drugs, if you don't remember the chicken soup incident." He shook his head. "Don't ask. I'll be right back."  
  
The gum helped, loosening up the constricted muscles. But when Logan returned with vegetable soup and crackers, her stomach contracted.  
  
"I've got a bad feeling about this," she said, staring at the bowl like it might attack her. "Not to sound ungrateful, but is there anything else? This kinda turns my stomach."  
  
Logan sighed. "Everything kinda turns your stomach right now. I'm out of ideas." He thought for a minute. "There's one thing my mom used to give me, when I was sick. I'll go out and see if I can find any. I'll be back as soon as I can. Don't go anywhere."  
  



	6. Believing

"No more animal crackers until you finish your sandwich," Logan said. "That's your tenth box in two days."  
  
"It's the only thing that sits well," she answered. Over the past couple of days, she'd managed to eat normal food, but only when buffered with animal crackers before, during, and after each meal. She'd also been up and about the apartment, still weaker than normal but healing rapidly. Mostly, though, she slept. Finally with no dreams, apart from the standard flying/at work in her underwear/turning into a duck variety.  
  
Poking at her sandwich, Max steeled herself to ask the question that had been lurking in the back of her mind since she realized thisI/ wasn't a dream, after all.  
  
"Logan?"  
  
He looked at her quizzically. "You're eating the sandwich and that's the end of it."  
  
"No, not that. What..." she faltered, her heart pounding, "what happened to the rest of them? Zack, Syl, Krit?"  
  
Logan smiled, relieved. "I can't keep track of what you remember and what you don't. I thought you knew. They're fine. They'll be in touch, eventually."  
Max's heartbeat returned to normal.  
  
"After the first two days," Logan continued, "when they were sure you'd be OK, and sure that my pitiful human self would be able to keep you that way, they split up. Zack went off to wherever it is Zack goes. Syl," he faltered, watching Max's face, "Syl went to find Charlie."  
  
Max's relief dimmed. "I should have been the one to tell him."  
  
Logan nodded. "I agree, but it wasn't fair to let him hope any longer than he already had."  
  
They sat silently for a minute, until Max asked, "And Krit?"  
  
Logan grinned again. "Krit went back to find his boyfriend."  
  
Max's jaw dropped. "Boyfriend?"  
  
Logan laughed. "You should've seen Zack's reaction. Krit managed to slip that one past him, I guess. Truthfully, I don't think that Zack cared who Krit was with. He was just pissy about "tactical exposure."  
  
Max was grinning too. "Yeah, that's Zack all over. God, I wonder how Lydecker would have handled that, if we'd never left Manticore to begin with."   
  
Her face fell as she remembered. Lydecker was dead, trying to help her.   
  
"Lydecker can be so annoying," she said, looking down at the quilt. "I escaped Manticore and I never stopped thinking about how he would see things. Now he's dead and I still can't stop."   
  
Logan stroked a bit of hair back from her face. "I know," he said, and handed her the box of animal crackers.  
  



	7. Demanding

"Ow! I'm alright!"  
  
Logan insisted on helping her around the apartment like she was a damn invalid. OK, fine, she had been an invalid, but she wasn't now. It had been a week since she was shot, how the hell long did he think it took her science project body to heal?  
  
"Max, you have two days to go before I take you in for a checkup. And I'll have three angry Manticores after me if I let anything get damaged. I was just helping you up."  
  
Anything. How very objectifying of him. "I'm sure your hand didn't mean to stay there either, because that would mean I was incapable of walking across a room alone." God, he was treating her like he was her damn brother or something. Whatever.  
  
"Logan, I'm fine." She was still a bit wobbly, and more than a bit emotional, but she wasn't going to admit it. "And I'm hungry. Where are my cookies."  
  
"Max, you ate the cookies. All of the cookies within a ten-mile radius. Animal crackers are not a real common post-Pulse commodity."  
  
Fine. If he was going to treat her like a baby sister instead of...she cut the thought off. Well, then she was going to act like one.  
  
"I WANT MY COOKIES AND I WANT THEM NOW!"  
  
Logan caved. "There's a place about an hour away. It's the best chance to get them. If you promise not to go anywhere while I'm gone, I'll go check for you."  
  
Max smiled. "I've got a much better idea. I'm going with you." She cut Logan off before he could protest. "Fresh air heals, you know."  
  
Logan saw the glint in her eyes and immediately set about convincing her to stay home, in bed, where she belonged.  
  
  



	8. Healing

The car pulled up in front of a bright-colored building, surrounded by pens and cages.   
  
"Where are we?" Max asked.  
  
"A petting zoo," Logan answered. "They have animals for kids to, well, pet. They also have the last known supply of animal crackers in the area. I'll be right back. Stay in the car."   
  
"This is the first time you've let me out of the apartment," she retorted, "and you think I'm staying in the car? Maybe I want to pet some animals." She stopped as a kid wearing a bright blue suit and...a cape?...ran past the car.   
"Uh... Weirdness alert."  
  
Logan followed her gaze. "Superman costume. Pre-Pulse fictional superhero. Kids wear them, Halloween kind of thing, you know?"  
  
She didn't know but she wasn't going to admit it. "Go get my cookies, Logan."  
  
He left, knowing he was probably going to regret it.  
  
Max climbed out of the car, wandering over towards the cages. There was a serious crush of kids in front of a jungle gym. She headed that way, curious.  
  
"I never jumped off the top of this jungle gym," a boy said.  
  
"I did," shouted another kid. "Ten points for me!"  
  
A game, then. Max watched for a while, picking up the fairly juvenile rules. She lost interest when they reached the "I never ate goat poop!" stage. Boys, men, all the same.  
  
She wandered around the compound, patting a sheep and stroking a couple of rabbits. She pulled herself up short when she saw some cute chickens...and didn't even think of them as food.  
  
Soft, she thought to herself, I've gone soft. I'm physically weak and my brain is following. I couldn't take out a piglet, let alone an X7. I'm useless.  
Max let her mind whirl on, mentally ranting, working herself up into a fury at her own weakness, Tinga's death, Lydecker, Logan's brotherliness, everything, until she was ready to take out the next thing that touched her.  
  
Something did, nudging her in the small of her back. She spun around, coming face to face with an enormous goat. She needed a target for her rage.  
  
"You'll do," she snapped, shifting into fighting stance. She knew it was ridiculous, but damn it felt good.  
  
"You better ask yourself, punk... Do you feel lucky? Well... Do ya?!"  
  
The goat tilted his head and let out a "baaa."   
  
"Go ahead." Max narrowed her eyes. "Make my day."   
  
The goat reached out over the fence and butted her gently in the stomach.  
  
"I think that deserves a black eye!" she rasped, her muscles tensing.  
  
"Max, if you kill the goat, I'm going to have to buy it. And I don't think you're up for roast goat just yet"  
  
Max jumped as Logan spoke over her shoulder. Embarrassed, she spit out the first excuse that entered her flustered brain. "He was trying to look up my skirt!"  
  
Logan nodded, seriously. "That's pretty rude of him, especially since you're wearing jeans."   
  
Max flushed and attempted to change the subject. "Where are my cookies?"  
  
It worked. "What cookies?," Logan asked loudly, steering her away from the crowd of kids. "I bought all they had," he whispered as they headed for the car, "and unless you want to share with everyone..."  
  
She didn't care, as long as he had forgotten about the goat.  
  
"I want my cookies!"  
  
Logan pulled her the rest of the way. "Shhh!! shhh!! SHHH!! I got a whole bag of shhhh!!! just for you!"  
  
They rode back to the apartment in silence, Max eating, Logan trying not to laugh. A goat!  
  



	9. Everything

By the next day, she'd had it.  
  
"Logan, I'm fine. Healthy as a horse," she announced. And I'm bored. If we've got to stay here another day, you're going to have to amuse me."  
  
Logan shut down the laptop and gave her a strained look. "You've read all the books I can find, there's no TV, and this town doesn't have much in the way of entertainment."  
  
"I'm sure you can think of something." She set her chin, stubbornly. "Otherwise I'm going out looking for something to do."  
  
Logan raised an eyebrow. "Going to beat up some more goats?"  
  
He knew that remark was a mistake, as soon as it left his mouth. Her face darkened, then shifted to a look of innocence.   
  
"That was so funny, Logan!" He wanted to play games with her? Fine. "You're such good company, so charming, why would I want to play with a goat when I can play with you?"  
  
Logan knew he was in trouble. "I'm afraid to ask, Max, but play with me how?"  
  
Max grabbed his laptop and sat on it. As good as he'd been all week, taking care of her and otherwise keeping his hands to himself when he wanted to....never mind...but after all that, he wasn't going to risk fate by going after it.   
  
"I'll have it back if you please!"   
  
Max laughed. Logan was flustered. Good. "Not now, Logan dear, let's play a game."  
  
"Max," Logan said reasonably, aware he had made a mistake in demanding the laptop instead of asking nicely, "I don't know any Manticore games, we don't have a chessboard, and I doubt Twenty Questions will keep you interested for long. Besides, whatever we play, I always lose."  
  
Max gave him a siren's smile, and he grabbed at his resolve to keep his distance. She needed time to heal, physically and mentally, and...  
  
"Logan? You ever play this game I Never?"  
  
Oh shit. "Yes, Max, but it's not that interesting..."  
  
"Logan? I Never ate a roasted goat."  
  
She wasn't going to stop. "I did, once," he said, giving in. "Ten points for me." Maybe she'd realize how ridiculous this was.  
  
"Your turn," she prompted.  
  
Guess not. Maybe she'd get so bored she'd go back to sleep or something. "I Never...swam the English channel."  
  
"Me neither." The game went back and forth for a few minutes, then longer. It was even fun, sort of. They were sitting across from each other, moving in closer, they were both laughing. Max looked good again, Logan thought. Really good, and in another few days maybe...  
  
"Logan?"   
  
"What?" He'd spaced out, missed her I Never.  
  
"Logan! You weren't listening. I get ten points and another turn." He'd been staring at her, she was almost sure he...and tomorrow they were leaving. Back to Eyes Only and everything else. Now or never.  
  
"Bonus turn," she said. She took a quick breath and slid forward the last few inches, landing on his lap. "I Never...sat on the lap of an anonymous computer hacker/cyberjournalist."   
  
Logan was floored. "You have so!" He grabbed at the game to buy time to think.   
  
"I'll have you know that's my knee you're straddling! That's a lie!"   
  
Max looked down. "I guess it is," she said thoughtfully. "Does that mean I lose?"  
  
Logan stared at her, thinking about his resolutions, her need for space, his fears of endangering her. And then he thought about how he just didn't give a damn.  
  
"Yes," he said, shaking his head mournfully. "You lose." He broke into a grin for half a second. That was as long as he could wait, before he kissed her.  
  
THE END  



	10. CHALLENGE #2

This story was a product of a fan fic challenge.  
  
I had so much fun reading the last entries, I want to start a new one. I'll set up a new page on my site (http://pages.prodigy.net/jennem), and put all the entries up on it in toto (not just links), and include it on my site's mailing list. You can post it here yourself, too, of course.   
  
There will be winners in a couple of categories, and the overall winner will get their own page.   
  
You can enter by emailing your submission to jennem@bigfoot.com or by posting it here:   
  
http://www.delphi.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=darkangelfans&msg=5819.1  
  
If you just post it at ff.net without emailing it to me or putting it on the MB, I might not see it. You, of course, retain all rights to your story.  
  
The challenge:  
  
Use 8 of the 10 quotes, and 8 of the 10 items, in any Dark Angel Universe story. No other rules. DEADLINE IS SEPTEMBER 5TH, AT 11:59PM  
  
QUOTES:   
1) "And I would have done it, too, if it wasn't for you meddling kids."   
2) "Please stop calling me Susie."   
3) "Whatever you think you heard, that's not what I said."   
4) "That's one happy guy."   
5) "Bite me."   
6) "So go climb a tree or something."   
7) "Pork: it's the other white meat."   
8) "That's sweet, but also kind of scary."   
9) "What on earth are you up to now?"   
10) "Pretty is as pretty does."   
  
ITEMS:   
1) Guest soap.   
2) A lawn sprinkler.   
3) Lovely earrings.   
4) A short trip.   
5) Hair replacement surgery.   
6) A fit of the giggles.   
7) Melted ice cream.   
8) A mother cat and her kittens.   
9) A sweaty handshake.   
10) A grand piano.   



End file.
